seductive influence. But in the course of time, the beneficent influence of the Holy Spirit came to the rescue. The early lessons received were not dead, but asleep-and they were aroused. I again entered God's holy temple, and listened with delight at the sound of the "glad tidings" therein proclaimed. Soon after I took a class in the Sunday School, and now have the pleasure of being a Superintendent of a Mission School, which is a live school and growing, and I hope with the help of divine inspiration to be of some benefit to the good cause.

Hoping your anticipations of a glorious meeting and Anniversary will be more than realized,

I remain, your brother in Christ,

CHARLES C. CURTIS.

From Rev. Charles S. Porter.

BOSTON, October 19, 1866.

R. S. WILLIAMS, Chairman of Committee:

DEAR SIR:

It would give me great pleasure to be present at the Fiftieth Anniversary of your Sabbath School. My engagements, I regret to say, make it impracticable. The lapse of more than twenty years has of course obliterated many of the impressions made upon my mind by incidents during my pastorate. The Sabbath School was then large and flourishing, through the zeal and diligence of a corps of able officers and teachers, most of whom we trust have now gone to that higher school, where with kindred spirits and many of their former pupils they no longer see through a glass darkly," but face to face with the Master and each other. The seed-time of the last fifty years has been attended and followed with the ingathering of souls in the church below and above, the garnered fruit of "line upon line," with many prayers and tears. No labor in the Lord shall be in vain. The review of the past from your earthly stand-point may have a counterpart at the high post

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of observation in heaven, with a host of interested witnesses there. So far as your record reads well below, it will read better above. My interest in your school has never ceased, and I trust never will until called to report to Him whose judgment will not be based upon our failure or success, but upon our faithfulness. May Heaven smile upon your interesting and important convocation, and make the next halfcentury a thousand fold more abundant in labors, with corresponding saving results.

With assurances of my warmest affection for your pastor and the members of my flock, I remain ever,

Yours in the Lord.

CHARLES S. PORTER.

From Jane L. Hardy.

ITHACA, October 8, 1866.

R. S. WILLIAMS, Chairman of Committee, &c.,

DEAR SIR:

My mother, Mrs. C. E. HARDY, wishes me to acknowledge the invitation extended to her, to attend the SemiCentennial Anniversary of your Sabbath School on the 20th and 21st of October, and to express her regret that she is unable to accept it. She also wishes me to say, that her connection with the school was so brief, and when she was herself so young, that she could recall no incidents that would be of any interest.

I unite with her in the hope, that this interesting reunion may be in every respect as successful as you could wish it.

The memory of my dear aunt, Mrs. OSTROM, is so enwoven with the school that she loved, that that alone would make it near to us.

Could I at this time conveniently leave here, I think upon the plea that I once for six or eight months filled the position of substitute teacher in the school, I should be inclined to appropriate, and use, my mother's, invitation; but I must be content, with wishing you a happy and mem orable day. Very respectfully,

JANE L. HARDY.

From Dr. M. M. Bagg.

UTICA, October 15, 1866.

R. S. WILLIAMS, Chairman of Committee:

DEAR SIR:

Desirous to contribute a portion, however small, to the interest of this occasion, I feel constrained to jot down a few items which memory brings back to me in relation to the earlier days of the school. And though others of more vivid recollections, or whose experience dates further back than my own, may proffer more, I may perchance have gleaned something which they have failed to present.

My earliest recollection of this Sunday School is of attending a single session, while it was held at the Lancaster School House, on Catharine Street, opposite Franklin, on the site now occupied by Lennebacker & Co.'s furniture ware-rooms. Of this meeting I can recall nothing except the position of the furniture the room contained; my impressions having probably been swallowed up by the exciting intelligence with which the scholars were greeted immediately on the close of the school, of a crime that had' just been committed in the upper part of the village.

My next recollection is of an annual meeting or exhibition of the school, which was held in the earliest or wooden church on Washington Street, on a Sunday evening. The scholars were seated in the square pews in front of the pulpit of that curiously arranged edifice; curious, I say, so different was it from any church I have since seen, for the pulpit was on the right hand or north side, while the pews were for the most part so placed as to look, one half westward and one-half eastward, a few square ones only being immediately in front of the desk, and a few long ones under the chorister's gallery on the south side. The exercises of the evening consisted, in part, of the enumeration by the scholars, of the numerous titles given our Saviour in the Scriptures, each class being called on for its quota. Though I presume that from my position in one of these

square pews, I must have been a scholar at this time, Í cannot tell who was my teacher nor who my classmates.

My remembrances of a somewhat later date become more distinct, for I was now installed as a regular member of the Sabbath School which was held in Hotel Street, while the new brick structure on Washington Street was in process of erection. This was a wooden two story building that had, I believe, previously formed a part of the original church of Washington Street, and stood on the west side of Hotel, opposite a lane which still exists. The schoolroom was in the second story, occupying the whole width of the building, and was reached by a staircase leading up on the outside of the south wall. The desk of the Superintendent was opposite the door, and the classes were ranged on the right and left. The class to which I belonged was seated in the north-east corner.

Herein begin my clearer remembrances of a prosperous and interesting school, with a full corps of zealous and useful teachers. Among the more prominent ones, were our excellent Superintendent, the pleasant-faced, warm-hearted, and devotedly active TRUMAN PARMELE, and his partner and coadjutor in all good works, MILTON BRAYTON, the boy-loving and boy-beloved GEORGE S. WILSON,-of whose Juvenile Association I retain a few delightful reminiscences, -EDWARD BRIGHT, HENRY IVISON, BRIGGS W. THOMAS, EDWARD VERNON, GEORGE BURCHARD, &c. Among the ladies were Mrs. SARAH K. CLARKE, of whose day school I was long a member, and whose memory is so precious to all her pupils; she was so masculine in her understanding, so feminine in her instincts and loveliness-truest, best picture of a "strong-minded woman," and Mrs. OSTROM, whose untiring assiduity even the present generation of scholars have not forgotten. My own teacher was Mr. SILAS CLARK, who was at that time a merchant in this city, and who afterwards removed to Watertown. I remember him as a quiet, cheerful, earnest man, punctual and faithful in his duties, and commanding the respect and affec tion of his class.

The spirited singing of the school I still recall; the vigor with which they brought out

"Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings," &c.,

I cannot forget, any more than I can the impressive words of a hymn then frequently sung, in which were enumerated the partings that must be felt at the last Great Day,

"Fathers and mothers there must part,

Must part to meet no more," &c.

For the interest of the singing, the school was greatly indebted to Mr. THOMAS HASTINGS, who was frequently present, and who about this time gave us instruction in vocal music, in a room in the second story of a building near the lower corner of Genesee and Broad Streets, over Tillman & Benjamin's cabinet shop. I am informed by one who was a somewhat older scholar than myself, that the Sunday School itself was once held in this room, and probably near the very time to which I allude. My own recollections of it are of a singing school, and I can still see Mr. HASTINGS with his venerable-looking head bowed down in astonishing proximity to his notes, or wagging vigorously in unison with his ivory-headed cane, to mark the time for his lagging class. It was that same white head which confronted us every Sabbath in the old brick church, whenever we raised our eyes from the pulpit to the organ loft, and which seemed as essential to the ministrations of the sanctuary as did any minister who ever filled its pulpit.

It is mortifying to me that of the numerous incidents I must have witnessed in the Sunday School while it was still in Hotel Street, of the solemn appeals I must have heard from our faithful Superintendent, or from strangers who sometimes visited us, I can call back scarcely anything. One only of Mr. PARMELE'S addresses now occurs to me, and notwithstanding it was made apropos of a very silly exploit of one of the boys, the solemn words elicited by the occurrence, as well as the story of the occurrence itself, remain indelibly impressed. This consisted in this boy